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Ahoy, mateys! It’s #TalkLikeAPirateDay, a yearly event held every September 19. But my niece Patty Mac and I celebrated a little early this year by attending the annual Tall Ships Festival a week ago Saturday.

The festival is sponsored by the Ocean Institute at Dana Point Harbor. Ordinarily there are only two ships at dock, the Spirit of Dana Point and the Pilgrim, a replica of the 19th c. hide brig Richard Henry Dana immortalized in his memoir, Two Years Before the Mast. The brig sailed from New England around Cape Horn to what was later named Dana Point Harbor to pick up cowhides from the California ranchos. The vaqueros would slaughter the cows on the cliffs and throw the hides over the side where the sailors gathered the uncured hides to transport back to New England factories. The hides were used to make leather goods.

For the festival, four other ships joined in the fun. Click to learn more about the participating ships.

At mid-day, a group of Royal Navy re-enactors joined up with the pirate re-enactors to recreate the capture of Edward Teach, aka Blackbird. It was fun to watch and gathered quite a crowd. The festival is good, clean, family fun, and we saw a lot of excited little pirates and mermaids in the crowd.

For more information on pirate history, check out a couple of previous Talk Like a Pirate Day posts:

And if you’re interested in fictional pirates, check out my steamy pirate 12,000 word short story.

Marooned
by Lyndi Lamont

Heather MacGibbon is traveling from England to her home in Jamaica with her new husband, Roger Parnell, a man she detests. When their ship is attacked by pirates, Roger is killed. Heather, disguised as a boy, joins the pirate crew.

Pirate captain Adam Langworth suspects there is something odd about the new lad. When he discovers she is a woman, she begs him to keep her secret, a violation of the ships’ articles. When her identity is discovered, Adam and Heather find themselves marooned on a deserted island with nothing to do for the rest of their lives but make love.